Meridian Medical Technologies, Columbia, Md., is being awarded a maximum $116,180,667 firm-fixed-price, sole-source contract for nerve agent antidotes. Other location of performance is in Missouri. Using services are Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. There was originally one proposal solicited with one response. The date of performance completion is Dec. 31, 2011. The Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity (SPM2DP-11-D-0002).

Hess Corp., Woodbridge, N.J., is being awarded a maximum $70,199,170 firm-fixed-price contract for electricity. Other locations of performance include Virginia, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Using service is Navy. There were originally 97 proposals solicited with 13 responses. The date of performance completion is Jan. 31, 2013. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-8017).

Direct Energy Business, LLC, Pittsburgh, Pa., is being awarded a maximum $10,728,624 firm-fixed-price contract for electricity. Other location of performance is in Illinois. Using service is Navy. There were originally 97 proposals solicited with 13 responses. The date of performance completion is Dec. 31, 2012. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Va., is the contracting activity (SP0600-11-D-8018).

NAVY

Lockheed Martin Corp., Owego, N.Y., is being awarded a $45,779,349 firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of two cargo unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and pre-deployment readiness activities in support of cargo UAS services in Afghanistan. In addition, this contract provides for required modifications of the UAS’s. Work will be performed in Owego, N.Y. (90 percent), and Bloomfield, Conn. (10 percent), and is expected to be completed in August 2011. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposals, with two offers received. Contract funds in the amount of $45,779,349 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity (N00019-11-C-0013).

Frontier Systems, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Co., Irvine, Calif., is being awarded a $29,935,037 firm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of two cargo unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and pre-deployment readiness activities in support of cargo UAS services in Afghanistan. In addition, this contract provides for required modifications of the UAS’s. Work will be performed in Irvine, Calif. (50 percent), and Mesa, Ariz. (50 percent), and is expected to be completed in August 2011. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposals, with two offers received. Contract funds in the amount of $29,935,037 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity (N00019-11-C-0014).

U.S. Information Technologies Corp.*, Chantilly, Va., is being awarded a one-year $12,452,120 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with firm-fixed-price and/or firm fixed-price level-of-effort task orders for information technology technical support services for the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC). This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $63,659,512. At this time, $351,710 has been obligated. Work will be performed primarily at the contractor’s location; MSC headquarters in Washington, D.C.; and Military Sealift Fleet Support Command in Norfolk, Va., as required. Work is expected to be completed by Nov. 21, 2011. If all options are exercised, work could continue until Nov. 21, 2015. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via a small business set-aside solicitation, and five offers were received. The solicitation was posted to the Military Sealift Command, Navy Electronic Commerce Online and Federal Business Opportunities websites. The U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting authority (N00033-11-D-6505).

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Melbourne, Fla., is being awarded a $9,500,000 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-02-C-6324) for continued post-delivery technical support for Rapid Airborne Mine Clearance System (RAMICS) units. This contract will be used to modify and/or repair delivered hardware; modify or build new RAMICS system components to resolve producibility, obsolescence, and end-of-life issues and update the technical data package with respect to the changes implemented; provide maintenance of delivered hardware as well as provide software maintenance required and provide the software upgrades and modifications required to optimize the performance of RAMICS; and provide required engineering services consisting of systems engineering; configuration and data management; quality assurance; manufacturing; test and evaluation; generating of presentations, white papers, trade studies; and development, tracking and updating of metrics. Work will be performed in Melbourne, Fla., and is expected to be completed by September 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City, Fla., is the contracting activity.

BAE Systems, Honolulu, Hawaii, is being awarded a $6,898,595 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-06-C-4408) for the USS Port Royal (CG 73) repair availability. This repair availability modification will consist of repairs to numbers 1A and 1B gas turbine intake bulkhead and deck, fuel oil storage tank top repair, superstructure cracks repair, and 06-level deck crack repair. Work will be performed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and is expected to completed by February 2011. Contract funds in the amount of $142,467 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard & IMF, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is the contracting activity.

AIR FORCE

United Launch Services, Littleton, Colo., was awarded a $21,226,443 contract modification which adds the fleet standardization program core effort to the evolved expendable launch vehicles launch capability contract. At this time, $1,300,000 has been obligated. SMC/LRK, El Segundo, Calif., is the contracting activity (FA8816-06-C-0002; P00219).

Boeing Aerospace Operations, Oklahoma City, Okla., was awarded a $20,000,000 contract for engineering sustainment support for the C/KC-135 series aircraft fleet. At this time, zero dollars have been obligated. OC-ALC/GKCK, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., is the contracting activity (FA8105-11-D-0002).

Hawker Beechcraft Corp., Wichita, Kan., was awarded a $15,209,720 contract which will provide two Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350ER. At this time, $15,209,720 has been obligated. 645 AESG/SYK, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8620-11-C-4008).

Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc., McLean, Va., was awarded a $10,805,781 contract modification which will provide an additional year of systems engineering and integration support of the launch and test range system. At this time, $6,800,000 has been obligated. SMC/LR, El Segundo, Calif., is the contracting activity (FA8811-10-C-0006; P00012).

Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, Calif., was awarded an $8,806,988 contract modification which will incorporate the dual operations capability into the existing engineering, manufacturing and development contract for the space-based infrared system high component. At this time, $8,806,988 has been obligated. SMC/ISK, El Segundo, Calif., is the contracting activity (F04701-95-C-0017; P00659).

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - December 2, 2010: Canadian Ambassador William Crosbie’s leaked diplomatic cable highlights the extremely fragile relationship that exists between the government of Afghanistan and the NATO alliance.

It is now obvious from Mr. Crosbie’s cable and the U.S. documents in the WikiLeaks trove that relations between Hamid Karzai, the Afghanistan president, and his foreign backers have become particularly poisonous.

Relations on a long list of issues continue to deteriorate, including disputed elections, corruption, a banking scandal, as well as the political and security situation.

The leaked Canadian memo is an independent confirmation of an earlier description of the corrupt and complex dynamics of the Afghan government made last year by Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan.

The picture painted by Mr. Crosbie of an Afghanistan President on the verge of potentially quitting his alliance with NATO comes at a time when Canada has just made a commitment to stay in the country for another three years. Canadian military trainers will head to Afghanistan after combat troops withdraw next year.

“We have gone through numerous crises as an international community in our relations with the Karzai government,” Mr. Crosbie wrote to Ottawa. “Rather than strengthening ties they have served to exacerbate and weaken them.”

Mr. Crosbie’s memo is not the first to highlight the disastrous relations with Mr. Karzai.

Mr. Eikenberry is a veteran victim of leaked diplomatic documents that highlight the controversial dynamics of U.S. foreign policy.

A year ago, when factions within the Obama administration were waging a fierce bureaucratic war over whether or not to send additional troops to Afghanistan, Mr. Eikenberry sent two cables to Washington arguing against the move.

In one he warned his superiors that Mr. Karzai “is not an adequate strategic partner” and said the Afghan president “continues to shun responsibility for any sovereign burden, whether defence, governance or development.”

In the other, Mr. Eikenberry cautioned against deploying sizable U.S. reinforcements, warning it would result in “astronomical costs” and would only deepen dependence of the Afghan government on the United States.

The two cables were leaked within days of Mr. Eikenberry sending them to Washington.

The leaks were an indication of one of the most bitter foreign policy battles being waged in the White House in decades.

But they also bluntly outlined the fault lines of a faltering U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan.

Mr. Eikenberry, a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General who once served as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has repeatedly cautioned against adopting a counterinsurgency strategy that assumed an Afghan political leadership that was secure, self-sufficient and capable.

He has repeatedly depicted Mr. Karzai as being weak, out of touch and manipulative, more devoted to advancing his family and clan interests than in ruling well.

Still other reports discuss constant clashes between the U.S. Embassy and Mr. Karzai, such as when he released 150 dangerous detainees without trial and when he pardoned suspected drug dealers because they were linked to his political cronies.

And that’s at a time when the Obama administration was making a concerted effort to get along with Mr. Karzai.

Meanwhile, disputes and protests over corruption allegations have meant that Afghanistan’s 249-seat parliament has been unable to meet since elections in September.

Mr. Karzai has threatened to scrap the poll entirely, after the Independent Election Commission disqualified 24 early winners, who included some of the president’s supporters.

Yet another scandal is brewing around the Kabul Bank, Afghanistan’s biggest privately owned bank, which, according to Mr. Crosbie’s cable is now expected to have losses ranging from US$500-million to US$850-million.

The bank’s former chairman, a Karzai family friend, is said to have given more than US$150-million worth of villas and condominiums to members of the Afghan elite, including Mahmood Karzai, a brother of the president.

In yet another controversial move, Mr. Karzai has set a December deadline for the dissolution of all private security firms in Afghanistan, in a bid to force NATO supply convoys to rely on Afghan government protection.

The decision, however, will hurt international development firms that rely on private guards to protect workers building schools, roads and agricultural projects.

Without adequate security many of those firms, which are responsible for more than US$2.5-billion in aid, say they will be forced to shut down.

Hopes of a peaceful, negotiated settlement to problems and the rebuilding of Afghan institutions like the judiciary and security forces shattered by three decades of war grow fainter by the day.

“With his legitimacy in question and his hold on power more tenuous by the day, Karzai now spends much of his time juggling the competing interests of his family, regional commanders, wealthy powerbrokers and international stakeholders,” the International Crisis Group said in a report, Afghanistan: Exit vs Engagement.

“This precarious balancing act in which corruption and patronage reign supreme has neutralized the president’s potency and hindered government reform.”

Norine MacDonald, president of policy research group the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) added, “The international community has been very elastic about the process of democracy in Afghanistan, and it is a good question how far this can be stretched before the whole pretext snaps.”